Cyber Resilience

CVE-2023-52434

Memory Safety in Linux Kernel 5.3 – 5.4.277

Published
20 February 2024
Modified
04 August 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 8.1
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.010 60th percentile
Risk Priority 62 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2023-52434 is a high-severity Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer (CWE-119) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 8.1 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Process Injection (T1055); ranked in the top 40% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-8 (Security and Privacy Engineering Principles) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: smb: client: fix potential OOBs in smb2_parse_contexts() Validate offsets and lengths before dereferencing create contexts in smb2_parse_contexts(). This fixes following oops when accessing invalid create contexts from server: BUG: unable…

more

to handle page fault for address: ffff8881178d8cc3 #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page PGD 4a01067 P4D 4a01067 PUD 0 Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI CPU: 3 PID: 1736 Comm: mount.cifs Not tainted 6.7.0-rc4 #1 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS rel-1.16.2-3-gd478f380-rebuilt.opensuse.org 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:smb2_parse_contexts+0xa0/0x3a0 [cifs] Code: f8 10 75 13 48 b8 93 ad 25 50 9c b4 11 e7 49 39 06 0f 84 d2 00 00 00 8b 45 00 85 c0 74 61 41 29 c5 48 01 c5 41 83 fd 0f 76 55 <0f> b7 7d 04 0f b7 45 06 4c 8d 74 3d 00 66 83 f8 04 75 bc ba 04 00 RSP: 0018:ffffc900007939e0 EFLAGS: 00010216 RAX: ffffc90000793c78 RBX: ffff8880180cc000 RCX: ffffc90000793c90 RDX: ffffc90000793cc0 RSI: ffff8880178d8cc0 RDI: ffff8880180cc000 RBP: ffff8881178d8cbf R08: ffffc90000793c22 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: ffff8880180cc000 R11: 0000000000000024 R12: 0000000000000000 R13: 0000000000000020 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: ffffc90000793c22 FS: 00007f873753cbc0(0000) GS:ffff88806bc00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: ffff8881178d8cc3 CR3: 00000000181ca000 CR4: 0000000000750ef0 PKRU: 55555554 Call Trace: <TASK> ? __die+0x23/0x70 ? page_fault_oops+0x181/0x480 ? search_module_extables+0x19/0x60 ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 ? exc_page_fault+0x1b6/0x1c0 ? asm_exc_page_fault+0x26/0x30 ? smb2_parse_contexts+0xa0/0x3a0 [cifs] SMB2_open+0x38d/0x5f0 [cifs] ? smb2_is_path_accessible+0x138/0x260 [cifs] smb2_is_path_accessible+0x138/0x260 [cifs] cifs_is_path_remote+0x8d/0x230 [cifs] cifs_mount+0x7e/0x350 [cifs] cifs_smb3_do_mount+0x128/0x780 [cifs] smb3_get_tree+0xd9/0x290 [cifs] vfs_get_tree+0x2c/0x100 ? capable+0x37/0x70 path_mount+0x2d7/0xb80 ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 ? _raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore+0x44/0x60 __x64_sys_mount+0x11a/0x150 do_syscall_64+0x47/0xf0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x6f/0x77 RIP: 0033:0x7f8737657b1e

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1055 Process Injection Stealth
Adversaries may inject code into processes in order to evade process-based defenses as well as possibly elevate privileges.
T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
T1212 Exploitation for Credential Access Credential Access
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to collect credentials.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

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CVE-2024-26689Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2023-3609Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2025-37885Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2025-38346Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2025-38377Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2023-52572Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2023-6932Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2023-51781Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2023-4921Same product: Debian Debian Linux

Affected Assets

linux
linux kernel
6.7 · 5.3 — 5.4.277 · 5.5 — 5.10.211 · 5.11 — 5.15.150
debian
debian linux
10.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V17.3.2

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Secure engineering principles require memory-safe design and coding that structurally avoids buffer-boundary violations.

Input validation directly enforces bounds checking that stops out-of-bounds reads/writes from being introduced or reached.

Memory protection restricts exploitation impact of buffer overflows without eliminating the underlying coding flaw.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices (bounds checking, safe APIs, reviews) directly prevent this class of flaw.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability scanning and code analysis directly surface buffer-boundary flaws.

ID.RA-08 partial match
prevents

Receiving and triaging vulnerability disclosures commonly includes buffer-related reports.

PR.AT-02 partial match
prevents

Developer training on secure coding reduces introduction of memory-buffer errors.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Patching replaces vulnerable code containing buffer-boundary defects.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

finds

Security testing in development catches out-of-bounds accesses before release, covering most instances of the weakness.

prevents

Secure development lifecycle mandates memory-safety practices that directly prevent buffer-boundary violations.

prevents

Application security requirements can specify memory-safety rules, but do not prescribe implementation details.

prevents

Secure architecture and engineering principles include memory-safe design patterns that mitigate buffer overflows.

prevents

Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe buffer operations, directly eliminating CWE-119.

References